The Song of Songs V – 1965 1966 Marc Chagall

We thought we knew all of the work of Marc Chagall … The course painter but also a sculptor, ceramicist without forgetting mosaics, stained glass windows and the upholsterer . This is what we discover until January 11 at the Modern Art Museum of Troyes , a place that has already spent exposures to glass, ceramics and textile art.
Chagall is interested in Tapestry in 1962, when the Israeli government commissioned a decoration for the hall of the Knesset. The triptych of a monumental tapestry is entrusted to the renowned Gobelins . He will again appeal to the factory in 1973 for a tapestry located in the entrance of the Marc Chagall National Museum in Nice.
Meanwhile, in 1964, the artist met the supervisor Yvette Cauquil-Prince and is immediately seduced by its ability to achieve tapestries without losing the soul so special original paintings.
The exhibition represents 17 tapestries Yvette Cauquil-Prince who was inspired lithographs and paintings of Marc Chagall the exposed side to put them in parallel and compared.
These tapestries include Peace , loaned by the city of Sarrebourg Moselle, La Baie des Anges , Le Coq Rouge, Harlequin and A wife , a work by Chagall in homage to his Bella Rosenfeld wife died in 1944.
In these tapestries themes dear to Marc Chagall are all present , religion, nature, circus, musicians and animals, this lively and colorful medley that transports us like a dream and reminds this excerpt from a poem of Aragon:
" Chagall color is your people
Give games and bread
God it’s nice when the shadow is red
and blue love "
Christophe Dard

to mark the 30 th anniversary of the death of Chagall, Marc Chagall National Museum invites the public to discover a wealth less known production of the artist: woven work.

After World War II, set in the south of France, Marc Chagall was introduced to other techniques as painting or engraving. The artist seeks to expand its plastic experiments: ceramics, stained glass, sculpture, mosaic and tapestry mobilize energy.

During his lifetime, Chagall and sees "fall of the loom" 20 tapestries for the decoration of public buildings or private collectors. Made from Chagall’s works, these tapestries were executed in close collaboration with the weavers of the national Gobelins or with a large tapestry specialist, Yvette Cauquil-Prince.

Chagall and upholstery

The first tapestries are woven Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins in Paris between 1965 and 1968. This is a set of three monumental tapestries for the hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem. In 1970 – 1971, it is again the Manufacture des Gobelins is responsible for the execution of a tapestry for the future National Museum Marc Chagall Biblical Message in Nice.

But much of the work is performed woven from the works of Chagall led by Yvette Cauquil-Prince. Major protagonist of the revival of the tapestry in the XX th century, Yvette Cauquil-Prince (1928-2005) devoted his expertise and talent to the transcription tapestry works of the greatest artists of the time: Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Paul Klee … Chagall meeting in 1964. Since then, is established a fruitful dialogue that lasts two decades and beyond, in tapestries pursued Yvette Cauquil-Prince after the death of Chagall in 1985. brilliant performer of the master’s work, she excels in the return of pictorial effects by means of the tapestry. It imports into the work woven throughout the expressive richness of the painted work, etched or drawn. The first tapestries, small size, are followed by large parts, giving see the model in a new format. As prime contractor, Yvette Cauquil-Prince does not limit its intervention to the reproduction of a model or its expansion. It proposes, by changing the medium and format, another reading of the work of Marc Chagall.

First tapestry exhibition at the National Marc Chagall Museum

This is the first time the Marc Chagall National Museum celebrates this technique, represented in its collections by a single piece, created for the museum, Mediterranean landscape .

The exhibition Marc Chagall. Woven works unfolds throughout the museum. It provides exceptional confrontation 12 shimmering tapestry or more nuanced and 12 original works by Chagall, who served as models for weaving.

The achievements will be discussed with the Gobelins tapestry created for the opening of the Museum (1973) and by the test printing, retail validated by Marc Chagall tapestries for the Knesset. Other tapestries presented show vividly the talented performer Yvette Cauquil-Prince.

The exhibition also explains the part of freedom of interpretation left to the contractor. One room is dedicated to the art of tapestry where the public can find the materials needed for weaving.

Monumental transposition of colorful verve of Marc Chagall, the woven work is an extension of the painted or engraved work. It invites to think the deregulation of creation, beyond the boundaries between artistic disciplines.

Police station

Anne Dopffer, general heritage curator, director of the National Museums of XX th century in the Alpes-Maritimes